Overview

• New monitoring analyses report detections off Halifax up about 2.5 times from 2018 to 2022 and nearly fourfold in the Cabot Strait, with average residency increasing from roughly 48 to 70 days.
• Maine’s tracking program has identified 93 individual great white sharks in the Gulf of Maine since 2020, including 19 unique sharks recorded on 47 dates in 2024.
• Authorities emphasize legal protections for white sharks, including a U.S. federal ban on fishing since 1997 and an IUCN classification of vulnerable.
• Massachusetts tightened shore-based fishing rules in 2024 after anglers targeted white sharks, citing public safety and conservation concerns.
• Public reports have grown through drone videos and the Sharktivity app, while experts note fatal great white bites are exceedingly rare worldwide with fewer than 60 recorded.